Do you skip gears?

**310stanger** · 02-10-2008, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by JwMonE99

Why is it always the ford guys who know what they are talking about, so basicly, what your saying is no matter what gears you skip it fucking up the clutch quicker? So its not worth the gas savor?
I was also reading the book or whatever its called that came with the car and there is a section that talks about skipping gears for the best gas mileage. At certain speeds

it depends on how many gears u skip and what your rpm's are when you are doing it. lets say you nail it in first and skip to 3rd at 6k rpms, this is not as bad with an engine that makes a lot of torque. but lets say you make the same shift at cruising rpm's, such as shifting at 2k for example, yes this will put stress on the syncros and clutch and accelerate the wear over time. whereas if you shift at the 2k rpms and go gear after gear, normal wear will ensue. yet people are draggin the comparison of banging gears which of course can wear shit out if you are a lousy driver. people have to put in the variable of how hard a driver is on the clutch in general. how do you release it? do you rest your foot on it? etc.

For example, i had a customer who insisted his clutch would wear out prematurely, and this would happen in like 10k miles. we had to actually ride in the car with him and see how he drove, turns out he was going up hills and shit at like 35 mph in 5th gear with the rpms lugging. its all physics. the torque of an lt1 and ls1 is real good so the skip shift may not make as much of a difference for you guys, but it does in fact wear out the trans and clutch quicker then if you were to make shift after shift at cruising rpms. the gas mileage benefit i bet is so negligible, you'd never really notice anyways. It when you are repeatedly wailing on it, and speeding that you eat up gas, obviously.

**JwMonE99** · 02-10-2008, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by 310stanger

it depends on how many gears u skip and what your rpm's are when you are doing it. lets say you nail it in first and skip to 3rd at 6k rpms, this is not as bad with an engine that makes a lot of torque. but lets say you make the same shift at cruising rpm's, such as shifting at 2k for example, yes this will put stress on the syncros and clutch and accelerate the wear over time. whereas if you shift at the 2k rpms and go gear after gear, normal wear will ensue. yet people are draggin the comparison of banging gears which of course can wear shit out if you are a lousy driver. people have to put in the variable of how hard a driver is on the clutch in general. how do you release it? do you rest your foot on it? etc.

For example, i had a customer who insisted his clutch would wear out prematurely, and this would happen in like 10k miles. we had to actually ride in the car with him and see how he drove, turns out he was going up hills and shit at like 35 mph in 5th gear with the rpms lugging. its all physics. the torque of an lt1 and ls1 is real good so the skip shift may not make as much of a difference for you guys, but it does in fact wear out the trans and clutch quicker then if you were to make shift after shift at cruising rpms. the gas mileage benefit i bet is so negligible, you'd never really notice anyways. It when you are repeatedly wailing on it, and speeding that you eat up gas, obviously.

Guy knows his stuff

**Firebirdjones** · 02-10-2008, 05:14 PM

Hmmm, I've been doing this for years on the same car, and never had a trans problem or a clutch problem. If the clutch isn't slipping then where is the extra wear coming from????

I would think if the clutch is that bad it just simply wouldn't hold at all when in high gear. Wear issues and slippage would only occur if you have a marginal clutch in the first place.

In all honesty though, regardless of what people think,,, it seems we have all forgotten that GM designed the skip shift into these cars,,,to go from 1st gear at a very slow 15-20 mph all the way up to 4th gear.

I believe if GM thought this would be an issue on the trans or clutch, they simply wouldn't have designed it this way,,,,,,could you imagine all the warranty claims????? I've never heard of any for this reason.

**310stanger** · 02-10-2008, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by Firebirdjones

Hmmm, I've been doing this for years on the same car, and never had a trans problem or a clutch problem. If the clutch isn't slipping then where is the extra wear coming from????

I would think if the clutch is that bad it just simply wouldn't hold at all when in high gear. Wear issues and slippage would only occur if you have a marginal clutch in the first place.

In all honesty though, regardless of what people think,,, it seems we have all forgotten that GM designed the skip shift into these cars,,,to go from 1st gear at a very slow 15-20 mph all the way up to 4th gear.

I believe if GM thought this would be an issue on the trans or clutch, they simply wouldn't have designed it this way,,,,,,could you imagine all the warranty claims????? I've never heard of any for this reason.

its not as much of an issue with the fbodies and vettes cause of the torque strong engines, robust transes and the relatively large surface area of the clutch. i still rather jus shift normal, hence my lengthy explanations of my points.

**twozs** · 02-11-2008, 05:47 AM

clutches are either open (pedal down) which stops the input shaft and trans internals from spinning making the gears easier to mesh. obviously gears wont mesh if they are spinning. the syncros aid in this its like a premesh. or clamped shut (pedal up). and the wear comes in between. when that peddle is up the flywheel, clutch disk and pressure plate are held together by the springs on the pressure plate with about 2000 pound of pressure . the only way a clutch would wear with the pedal in the up position is if it were slipping. so in reality the more you shift the more you wear the clutch, so shifting less would put less in and out movement(engagement and disengagement) on the disk, pressure plate and the throwout Bering. wear occurs during release and engagement not when the flywheel disk and plate are clamped together. if anything premature shifting would put excessive load on the gears, input and output shafts and the u joints with the u joints being the weak link probably.

**Spaz** · 02-11-2008, 08:27 AM

skip gears... no...

**2MuchFun** · 02-11-2008, 08:28 AM

my skip shift gizmo had a delete plug thingy on it when I got it, but the light still showed and I was like wtf is that for. Had that code deleted along with rear 02, air and egr codes.

**Tobynine9** · 02-11-2008, 01:03 PM

I have a gas card through work so...

I never skip gears.

**Too Fast** · 02-12-2008, 03:07 AM

Originally Posted by twozs

clutches are either open (pedal down) which stops the input shaft and trans internals from spinning making the gears easier to mesh. obviously gears wont mesh if they are spinning. the syncros aid in this its like a premesh. or clamped shut (pedal up). and the wear comes in between. when that peddle is up the flywheel, clutch disk and pressure plate are held together by the springs on the pressure plate with about 2000 pound of pressure . the only way a clutch would wear with the pedal in the up position is if it were slipping. so in reality the more you shift the more you wear the clutch, so shifting less would put less in and out movement(engagement and disengagement) on the disk, pressure plate and the throwout Bering. wear occurs during release and engagement not when the flywheel disk and plate are clamped together. if anything premature shifting would put excessive load on the gears, input and output shafts and the u joints with the u joints being the weak link probably.

What you say is all true. The less you shift, the less wear on everything even u-joints. Skip the gears however you want, as long as you do not slip the clutch (more than the normal shift) you will not have excess wear on the clutch and clutch parts. Lugging the engine will not cause the clutch to wear out sooner, but the engine suffers. What Stanger says is mostly true, but I repeat that skipping gears, as long as you don't slip the clutch during the shift, will not wear things out faster. When you put it into 4th from 1st (or whatever), just smoothly and quickly let the clutch pedal out and don't rev the engine as the clutch engages.

**jad628** · 02-12-2008, 04:06 AM

Not all the time, but when I do it is usually 1st to 3rd to 5th (or 6th).

Probably row through all gears 80% of the time unless it's an area of 50mph or less where I don't go into 6th.

**bamaz28** · 02-12-2008, 05:34 AM

skip 2nd and 4th alot

**dparsons1968** · 02-12-2008, 05:57 AM

I skip shift everyday. Just have to manage the rpms. Been driving M transmissions since 1984 and have done it on all of them with no excess wear on the clutch that I have noticed.

**Musclefan21** · 02-12-2008, 02:55 PM

I always do that. second to 4th or 3rd to 5th or 4th to 6th. I am just too lazy to go all gears sometimes!

rapter34 · 02-12-2008, 09:18 PM

I use to but since I put a short stick in ive been hooking every gear.

**SleeperC5** · 02-14-2008, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by MagicMan

Rarely

he need all the speed pick up he can get....

just kidding bro....

**FORD RECOVERY EXPERT** · 02-14-2008, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by rbob93

Are you looking for responses from Mexicans named Manuel???

As for me, I do skip some gears at times with cars that have a manual tranny

LMAO, that's the 1st thing i noticed, Manuel ...

**Smkn_TA** · 02-15-2008, 01:57 PM

Hitting every fucking gear? I got 3.42 in rear, so lets see, tap gas, second, tap gas third, tap gas forth.

If I am doing 80 in third gear, do you really expect me to go, fourth fifth and sixth? Go straight to sixth. If you do not skip gears, your a fucking moron and need to have a four speed. Nuff said.